Grandpa vs. Natalie...Zooming

One of the more fascinating concepts the past several weeks has been video conferencing. We support all formats over here at the Cortez house (Zoom, Facetime, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc.), basically whatever format we get invited to from friends, teachers and family. The most consistent one seems to Zoom. I think at the end of this past weekend every device in the house now has the app and we are all fairly proficient. Highlight for me was definitely watching the Sunday morning practice session between Grandpa (almost age 70) and Natalie (almost age 8). Grandpa was slow and steady wanting to know exactly how the app worked (gallery view vs. who is talking view, etc) and Natalie had more of a pinball wizard approach (how do I text on this thing? How does my voice sound in my headphones? where is the screen where I see myself?)...They both learned the app and all in all,  it is really amazing how this technology can connect a 62 year age gap between Grandpa and Natalie...Reminds me a bit of my first year in college and the early days of email...

This weekend we used video conferencing to talk to the entire extended family, friends from Malibu, Seattle and New York. And we even tried to recreate a wedding that we were supposed to be in Mexico for this weekend. For the next month or two, Zoom us any time, we will be home :-)

It is all about the bike...

Almost to the end of week 2 of "safer at home" in LA County. One pleasant surprise of home schooling has been our daily PE class. The streets are generally wide open and I have been letting the girls ride their bikes on the street (with me running either in front or behind them at all times of course). We live on a fairly busy corner (and a big hill) so it not something they ever done before. In fact, the only non drive way bike riding they have done has been on vacation - Black Butte, Oregon and Denver Colorado. It definitely reminds me a lot of growing up in Brea and riding bikes through the greenbelt and streets with my childhood friends. Being comfortable biking the neighborhood is definitely a skill I didn't think the girls would learn living on our busy corner. We have biked 6 out of the last 7 days (almost 15 miles in total) and the girls (and Dad) have enjoyed every minute of it...Bike on everyone and enjoy the open streets...Mike, the PE Teacher

Home Offices and Classrooms...

After our first full week of home schooling on Speyer Lane, we had to make some executive decisions. First dad bought a desk on Amazon for his home office (he is now in his corner office in the master bedroom)....

https://www.amazon.com/SD-Drafting-Adjustable-Assembled-Dimensions/dp/B00EYGR978/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=drafting+table&qid=1585027221&sr=8-6

Second, we had to re-arrange the Grandpa/ma room into Natalie's 2nd grade class room. We moved the bed to the corner and set up Natalie with our home computer (she doesn't get her school chrome book until 3rd grade). We also added two virus protection plans (McAfee and eero) since this girl could watch YouTube from sunrise to sundown. Lastly, we set her up with an old desk (two sizes too small) and told her to make the classroom her own. I came in this morning to a very focused yet relaxed student...I believe she is diligently working in the photo, but 50/50 she is watching YouTube..

We will see how the rest of week two goes, but generally we are off to good start. Highlight of the day was a tip we got on a bike ride yesterday from some other parents...Lunch time doodle w/ Mo Willems (Pigeon Book Series)...If you haven't seen this one yet, definitely worth a watch, it kept both Cortez girls entertained today for a full 30 min...

https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/

Dad Channel and thankful for termites....

Hi everyone...Haven't posted here in a while. This blog was originally from the perspective of Maya right after she was born....Well, now Maya is 10 and Natalie is soon to be 8, so the new perspective is from Dad. And we are all home together doing our best social distancing to help fight the spread of COVID 19. What better to do with all of my time at home then resurrect this blog...My plan is to share a little bit of "a day in the life", but more importantly, what we are observing and learning together while we are all home as a family...Please enjoy, and as my kids would say "please subscribe"...JK, nothing to subscribe to here, just enjoy the periodic observations of 40 year old dad...And to my wife and mother, please do not correct my grammar as I post...

Here is the last family pic from pre social distancing. We tented the house for termites in late Feb and stayed a couple nights at the Redondo Beach pier. As always, the kids loved the Hotel (and pool) and Kristy and I enjoyed eating out for every meal at the pier...What a difference a couple weeks make....Looking back, I am thankful for termites as they gave us one last stay-cation at a hotel before we all realized how serious COVID 19 was.